Policies

Operation of the Siemens Prisma 3T Life Sciences MRI Scanner requires approval by the Directors and/or the Operation's Manager of the facility under all circumstances. The following training policy has been established to provide a safe environment for the non-MRI technologist to become trained to safely operate the MRI scanner (Primary Operator), or to be proficient in MRI safety rules and assist a Primary Operator (Secondary Operator).

Referencing the MRI Facility

Since the Life Science MRI Facility was funded by an NIH S10 Instrumentation Grant, users who publish any data acquired on the Siemens Prisma Scanner must acknowledge the following Grant in any publication: S10 OD012336- 3T MRI Scanner dedicated to Life Sciences Research (PI: Ulrike Dydak)

Suggested Language: Data acquisition was supported in part by NIH Grant S10 OD012336.

Definitions

Secondary Operator

• A person who has successfully completed the MRI safety training as outlined below
• The purpose of a Secondary Operator is to assist the Primary Operator in case of emergency
• A Secondary Operator is NOT qualified or allowed to operate the MRI scanner

Primary Operator

• The Primary Operator has successfully completed the MRI safety training and has successfully passed the practical assessment.
• Only Primary Operators may operate the MRI scanner.

Scanning rules

Everyone entering the scanning room is required to complete the MRI Safety Screening Form provided by the facility

• At all times two safety trained operators, at least one of which is a Primary Operator, must be present when the scanner is operated with a live human, animal and/or phantom.
  • This excludes the participant being scanned.
  • Primary Operators can reserve time on the scanner through iLab once they have been linked to a study account.

Safety training

Please contact Dr. Ulrike Dydak (udydak@purdue.edu), Xiaopeng Zhou (zhou857@purdue.edu), or Nathan Ooms (naooms@purdue.edu) to complete the following training procedures.

• To become a Secondary Operator:
  • Any Purdue or IU graduate, undergraduate, faculty, or staff member can become a Secondary Operator.  Equally, students, staff and faculty members from other universities can become a Secondary Operator if they are assigned 'visiting' status at Purdue.
  • Watch an MRI safety video
  • Go through a walkthrough of the facility with the MRI Operation's Manager.
  • Demonstrate familiarity with emergency procedures at the MRI facility.
  • Successfully complete on online MRI Safety Assessment.
  • Become approved as secondary operator by the MRI Operation's Manager.

• To become a Primary Operator:
  • Undergraduate students cannot become Primary Operators
  • Be a Secondary Operator
  • Be CPR trained with a valid CPR certification card
  • For human scanning: Have valid CITI Human Subjects Research certification for Biomedical Research Investigator and key personnel
  Assist a Primary Operator for at least 10 hours of documented scanning time;
  • • Prior scanning experience at another facility can be used to reduce, but not eliminate, the number of training hours
• Set-up and perform at least three scan sessions with human subjects* supervised by a Primary Operator.
• Successfully pass a practical assessment administered by the Operation's Manager or one of the Directors. This practical assessment consists of completing a scanning session autonomously, without any help from the Operation's Manager who is present as an observer.

* A Primary Operator may be certified for animal scanning only. In this case the training sessions and evaluation test may be done on the respective animal models.

Protocol evaluation

• Before any new study may be started, the general aims, a scan protocol, and the corresponding IRB/PAPCUC approval must be submitted to the operation manager for approval. For development scan time, the scan protocol should list the type of sequences to be optimized or tested
• Protocol evaluation will be done by the operation manager